The Khronos Group - a non-profit industry consortium to develop, publish and promote open standard, royalty-free media authoring and acceleration standards for desktop and handheld devices, combined with conformance qualification programs for platform and device interoperability.

Mobile Phones related stories

Symbian, the consortium that develops the mobile operating system of the same name, plans to add in APIs for multimedia applications, a bearer mobility capability and technology for greater code density on ARM processors to the OS over the next 18 months. Two of the multimedia APIs come from the Khronos Group, OpenSL ES and OpenMAX IL, said Andy Moran, head of enterprise at the London-based company. Symbian intends to implement OpenGL ES, another Khronos Group API for full-function 2D and 3D graphics, enabling mobile TV, videoclips on a phone and so on.

Khronos is pleased to present Mobile and Embedded Graphics at ARM Developers' Conference 2007 on October 4th. The Mobile and Embedded Graphics event at The ARM Developers’ Conference & Design Pavilion is a great, free, opportunity to get the latest information on the fast growing area of embedded graphics. Discover how 3D hardware fits into the SoC realm, what implementations are available for systems integrators today, and the benefits of having graphics in end user devices, including what sort of applications are now possible. Attendance is free, but you are required to RSVP. For more information, please visit our event page.

Expert Members Kari Pulli, Jani Vaarala, Ville Miettinen, Robert J. Simpson, Tomi Aarnio and Mark Callow have organized an in-depth all day course for intermediates on Mobile 3D Ecosystem at Siggraph on Tuesday August 7th. Attendees will learn how to develop 3D applications for mobile devices, how they function, and where they are heading. The course focuses on OpenGL ES and M3G, and how to use these technologies to create efficient applications and deploy them in the mobile world. Prerequisites include a basic knowledge of 3D computer graphics, a working knowledge of a modern graphics API like OpenGL, D3D, X3D, or Java3D and an ability to read simple computer programs written in C and Java.

Acrodea and Bandai Networks have announced the release of X-Forge 2007, a game development environment for handheld devices. Leading the mobile games market, the newly released X-Forge 2007 SDK (software development kit) offers the first compatibility for Open GL®ES 2.0, and supports programmable shaders and scene graphs. X-Forge 2007 delivers compatibility with OpenKODE as set forth by the Khronos Group, and supports the de facto standard 3D graphics API sets OpenGL ES 1.0/1.1/2.0.

The Embedded Systems 3D Game Software Development Kit, short ES 3D Game SDK, is an Open Source 3D Game Engine / SDK for embedded devices / mobile phones. The new v0.4.1 includes hardware and simulated lighting for the terrain renderer. Also, several improvements and bug fixes are included in this release. The SDK is tested against the OpenGL ES library from Hybrid Graphics (Rasteroid 3.1), Imagination Technologies (PowerVR) and Nokia (OpenGL ES 1.1 Plugin). For OpenKODE, the Acrodea SDK is used and tested.

Tom Hume over at www.tomhume.org has done a quick round up of comments from some major players in the Mobile phone market. Here are a couple of out-takes. Oscar Clark, nVidia: "OpenKODE is important because it lets you do source portability. Java was supposed to do this, but hasn't delivered the full power of it." Bill Pinnell, Product Manager, Graphics & Gaming, Symbian: Khronos API allows hardware manufacturers to target a single platform as well as software developers. Read the complete round up.

Aplix a global leader in Java™ technology for mobile and embedded devices and SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp a major Japanese wireless communication operator, recently announced their agreement to co-develop a common software platform named “Portable Open Platform Initiative” (POP-i™), which will allow value-added applications to run consistently upon multiple mobile platforms being adopted by handset manufacturers, including EMP OPA, Linux®, Microsoft® Windows Mobile®, QUALCOMM® AMSS/BREW®, Symbian™ OS.. Aplix has been contributing to SOFTBANK MOBILE’s “POP-i” specification work, and will provide a corresponding framework for SOFTBANK MOBILE’s next-generation mobile multimedia service offerings. Applying OpenKODE®, a key API standard for multimedia applications, “POP-i” provides a cross-platform abstraction layer for various media technologies.

A new 300 page Jon Peddie Research Report on Semiconductor Opportunities in Handheld Market is now available. The report Identifies Sectors for Growth, Predicts Consolidation, Forecasts Trends. Marketing and consulting firm Jon Peddie Research announced the release of its latest 300-page report, Handheld Multimedia Devices 2nd Edition. The report is based on two years of extensive research and identifies opportunities in multimedia for semiconductor, IP, software, sensors and tuner suppliers in handheld devices such as mobile phones. JPR has been studying, lecturing worldwide, and reporting on the handheld market since 2000 and has widely canvassed the companies and individuals in this field to obtain product information, trend data, market sizing and forecasts, and competitive issues for the current report.

The book introduces you to the world of 3D graphics with the Mobile 3D Graphics API (JSR 184). It covers the basics of 3D programming, but also advanced topics such as quaternion math, environment mapping, and creating articulated characters. You will also learn how to create 3D content in in the open-source tool Blender, import the artwork into your application, and then tailor the export to meet your needs. The skills learnt in the book will easily extend to other APIs, including OpenGL ES with JSR 239 and the MascotCapsule V3 API, which are both featured in the appendix. Check out the free sample chapter and more information on the author's Web site

From 3GSM to GDC to Mobile Entertainment World… Khronos members weigh in on the latest in mobile and graphic technology
3GSM and GDC: Kathleen Maher of Jon Peddie Research has worked with Khronos to produce an excellent series of nine new podcasts. This is best listened to as a two part series. First, Kathleen interviews Khronos members at 3GSM to find out what was the buzz in Barcelona. Khronos members are the experts behind the tremendously successful Khronos standards for 3D, 2D, video and audio for mobile devices. Kathleen talks with Members about how the new technologies can be used to create applications for mobile phones.